These are as accomplished readings as any of the Ardittis’ in this repertoire, more sensitive to the impish humour and theatricality of the First Quartet, and perhaps a touch more relaxed in the Second. The Ardittis have since committed a live recording of No 2 to disc (Wigmore Hall Live, 10/02) but there is little need to revise the comments I made on the first release of the Artemis performances (3/01).

The recording strikes a happy medium and introduces (as I wrote then) ‘a psychological distance into the performance, and slightly blurs the sudden cuts and changes of texture on which the musical drama [of the Second Quartet] depends’. It also imparts a pleasingly hazy patina to some of Ligeti’s held chords, and a greater sense of timbral differentiation. A welcome alternative to the Ardittis, then, and if you don’t know these warhorses of the modern quartet repertory, this isn’t a bad place to start.